I saw this fun meme today over at A Work in Progress and simply could not resist to give it a try!
Life According to Literature
Using only books you have read this year (2009), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It is a lot harder than you think!
Describe yourself: The Little Stranger (Sarah Waters)
How do you feel: Stillness (Courtney Angela Brkic)
Describe how you currently live: Fun Home (Alison Bechdel)
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Cranford (Elizabeth Gaskell)
Your favorite form of transportation: Delegates' Choice (Ian Sansom)
Your best friend is: Wandering Star (J. M. G. Le Clézio)
You and your friends are: People of the Book (Geraldine Brooks)
What's the weather like: Twilight (Stephenie Mayer)
You fear: The Inheritance of Loss (Kiran Desai)
What is the best advice you have to give: Crabwalk (Günter Grass)
Thought for the day: What I Loved (Siri Hustvedt)
How I would like to die: Baking Cakes in Kigali (Gaile Parkin)
My soul's present condition: Purgatorio (Dante Alighieri)
:)
Mortal Mischief (or A Death in Vienna as the US edition is called) by Frank Tallis was my "dusty" book for the 9 books for 2009 challenge. I thought I might have bought it sometime in 2006 and that was confirmed, when I found a receipt between pages 312 and 313 (the receipt revealed that I had also bought Christine de Pizan's classic The City of Ladies which I haven't read yet, either!). Anyway, the receipt was dated March 28th 2006. Mortal Mischief/A Death in Vienna is the first book in The Liebermann Papers series.
Dr. Max Liebermann is a music loving psychiatrist, a dicipline of Dr. Sigmund Freud, in Vienna, the capital of the Habsburg Empire. The year is 1902. When a young female medium is mysteriously murdered, detective inspector Rheinhardt asks his good friend Liebermann for help.
Mortal Mischief was a delightful read! Yes, delightful, despite of it being a murder mystery. Even though interesting, the actual mystery part of the story was almost secondary to me. What I enjoyed most was the description of Max Liebermann's professional struggles, his clever use of deduction when solving both psycholocigal problems of his patients and the details of the murder mystery, and the snippets about his personal life, some of which will no doubt be developed further in the dollowing parts of the series. That being said, also the mystery was a very clever one, so simple, but clever.
I am very glad I finally read this mystery. Tallis is able to bring turn of the century Vienna alive in this book. As I've been lucky enough to visit Vienna twice I was able to see in my mind some of the places mentioned. This little paragraph, where the Karlzplats station pavilions are mentioned, made me chuckle:
"Eventually she found herself standing by one of the new station entrances on Karlsplatz. Her husband had said that they were a disgrace and that the architect should be shot. Beatrice had agreed, but looking at them now she could not understand why some people found them so offensive. The green wrought-iron framework of the two pavilions reminded her of a conservatory."[p. 408]
The architect was Otto Wagner. The pavilions had been built in 1898 and they are two of the most beautiful examples of Wagner's work. Today one of the two pavilions, the west pavilion, houses a permanent exhibition of Otto Wagner's life and work. Learn more about the pavilions and Wagner here. The paragraph I quoted made me smile, because I simply love Jugend/Art Noveau architecture and while in Vienna Karlsplatz pavilions were one stop on my Jugendstil architecture pilgrimage! :) I don't think anyone today could think the pavilions as a disgrace!
Sorry, I digressed from the book to Viennese architecture... :) All in all, Mortal Mischief was an easy and enjoyable read, and I will most definitely read the other parts of the series, too. My only critisism is that there were perhaps too many café scenes it the book. Cafés are very special in Vienna, but still. And all those tarts and cakes mentioned! They would make even a stronger person give in to temptation, not to mention someone like me with more than one sweet tooth! ;)
The other volumes of the Liebermann Papers series (this far) are:
Mailbox Monday is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page.
I am incorrigible! I simply cannot help myself! I bought two new books again, and ordered some from the Book Depository, but more about those later, as they have not yet arrived.
The two new additions to my book collection are:- Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
I have actually not read any of her books yet. Don't really know why, as I love historical fiction and have heard good things about Dunant's books. I also happen to collect fiction about sisters/nuns, so this was actually a must have for me. - Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
I own her collected works, but it is such a huge book that you don't want to carry it around in your bag, and I tend to read on my way to work. So I bought this Penguin Classics edition of Northanger Abbey. There is also a lot of background information in this edition which is interesting to read.
I don't read much fantasy. I do enjoy reading science fiction, though, my favorite science fiction authors being Elizabeth Moon and Ursula Le Guin, both of whom have actually also written fantasy books (which I have not read). Sometimes, however, a fantasy book catches my attention and in those cases more often than not it is a book that somehow tells a story using alternative history, which I love! There is also wonderful alternative history science fiction out there, two of my favorite authors on this genre being Sophie McDougall (Romanitas and Rome Burning and the third upcoming part of the trilogy tell about the Roman Empire that never fell) and Jon Courtenay Grimwood (the Arabesk series where the Ottoman Empire never fell and also his earlier science fiction books where the Napoleonic Empire survived into the future).
It was because of the alternative history aspect that I some years ago bought Susanna Clarke's bestseller Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, or rather the Finnish translation of it which is called Jonathan Strange & Herra Norrell, herra being mister in Finnish. I also loved the fact that there were two different looking versions of this novel published, one with white covers and a white dust jacket with black text and the other with black covers and a black dust jacket with white text. White magic and black magic! I though it was a brilliant idea.
So, I bought the book, but I never read it. These past four years it has been sitting on one of my book shelves, occupying a very prominent place there, a place, where it has caught my eye more or less every day. Thus, when I was choosing what to read for the 9 books for 2009 challenge, I thought it was high time to give the two magical gentlemen a try!
I took the book with me, when I went to Slovenia for a week's holiday. (I always take two books with me, when I travel. This time the other one was Granford by Elizabeth Gaskell, a lovely book!) I got a good start reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell in the airplane, and somewhat to my surprise I was soon captivated with the story. Before the week was over I had finished the book, all 793 pages of it!
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a story about how practical magic returs to the early 19th century Britain after many centuries, when magic has only been studied as something theoretical. It is an ambitious work of fiction successfully executed, and I am very happy I finally read it!
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell was my book read for the strange-category in the 9 books for 2009 challenge, because of its genre and, well, of course also because of its name! :)
It is Teaser Tuesday time again! Teaser Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
And the rules are:- Grab your current read.
- Open to a random page.
- Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.
- Be careful not to include spoilers!
- Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participiants can add the book to their to be read lists if they like your teasers!
I must say my teaser this week is a gem, isn't it? ;) And it really is only 2 sentences long. :)
"As a child back in north London, Israel had always imagined that a life communing with books might be a life communing with the great minds and lives of the great thinkers of the past, those who had formed the culture and heritage of the world, and that it might perhaps be his role to share these riches with others. In fact, in reality, as a mobile librarian on the perpentually damp north coast of the north of the Northern Irland, Israel seemed to spend most of his time communing with the great minds and lives of thinkers who had produces Haynes car manuals, and Some Stuff I Remember About Visiting my Granny on her Farm in the Country, Before I was Horribly Mentally, Physically and Sexually Abused by my Uncles and Married Three Unsuitable Husbands and Became an Alcoholic and Lost Everything and Lived in a Bedsit in Quite a Nasty Part of a City Before Meeting my Current Husband Who is Rich, and Wonderful, and Then Moving Back to the Country, Which is Ironic When You Think About It: The Sequal, and Shape Up or Ship Out! The Official US Navy Seals Diet, and How to Become a Babilloinaire - Tomorrow!, and pastel-covered Irish, English and American chick-lit by the tonne, the half-tonne, the bushel, and the hot steaming shovel-load. "
The quote above is from page 14 of The Delegates' Choice. Part Three of Ian Sansom's The Mobile Library 
series, featuring Israel Armstrong an English, Jewish, crime-solving mobile librarian, and his irascible colleague Ted Carson. Priceless read! :)
Mailbox Monday is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page. Last week my book collection was increased by five new purchases:
- The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt. I've had this book in my shopping list for a while and finally got it on Friday. I'm very much looking forward to reading it. I'm basically interested in all and every book about the Victorian or Edwardian times, and this one is by Byatt, so I'm expecting a great read!
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I've never read this classic, and I thought it was high time to purchase a copy. After reading Lady Windermere's Fan for the 9 for 2009 challenge, I'm very much a fan of Wilde. And isn't this a beautiful edition! Black and white cloth cover, very stylish, plus there is an appendix including some contemporary reviews, which I think will be very interesting to read.
- All three books of The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. I finally gave up! :) Everybody, and I mean everybody all around, is talking about Larsson's books, and I have not read even the first one. I had intended to borrow them from the library later (at the moment the queues for the Finnish translations are quite long, and I'd rather read these in Finnish), but The Academic Bookstore had the whole series at such a good price I could not resist. :)
Maybe you don't know, but the whole series is being made into film! The first movie has already been in the theatres in the Nordic countries, the second one will be very soon. The first two of my paperbacks have in fact movie covers. You'll get to see what Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander look like in the movies. Here's two links to some info in English about the film adaptations (The first link includes some trailers):
Teaser Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. This is my first participation. :)
The rules are:- Grab your current read.
- Open to a random page.
- Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.
- Be careful not to include spoilers!
- Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participiants can add the book to their to be read lists if they like your teasers!
I'm currently reading Land of Marvels by Barry Unsworth. 
It is a novel set in Mesopotamia in 1914. A British archeologist is directing an escavation in the desert, but the wings of war are approaching...Here are my teaser sentences:
"If a major in the Turkish Army, heavily escorted, were travelling about, questioning local chiefs and making maps in some part of the British Empire, some region of India, for example, he would have been at once arrested and locked up. Yet Manning assumed the right to do the same thing in Mesopotamia and seemed ready to take offence if the right was questioned." [p. 39]
I spent last week in Slovenia. There are some photos about Ljubljana central market place on my food blog Cinnamonda, if you want to take a look. I'll post some pictures here, too, as soon as I have time to sort my pictures a bit. I tend to take a lot, I mean A LOT of photos, every time I'm abroad. :).
After returning home I felt that I'd rather spend my last summer holiday week mostly off-line. The weather has been so nice, and I wanted to cramp in this week as much tennis as I could :) in addition to that our dance practise started again after a three-week summer break. So, I have been very busy with my two favorite sports these past few days back home. I have, however, also made good progress with my reading during these past two weeks, and I think now is high time to continue reviewing my reading challenge books. Since my last post I have read both my "Alive or not"- and "Strange" -books for the 9 for 2009 challenge. In addition to that I have read Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (such a lovely, funny book) and Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin (definitely a great summer read!). I'll post reviews of both later. Let's start now with the book I chose as my "Alive or not" -book for the 9 for 2009 challenge:
Basic facts:
Author: Kim Wilkins
Book: The Autumn Castle
First published: in Australia in 2003, in the UK in 2004
I read: The 2004 Gollanz trade paperback edition
First line: Once upon a time a Miraculous Child was born.
The idea behind the Alive or not -category of the 9 books for 2009 challenge is to read a book already in your possession that has been written by an author, who has won or been nominated for any literary price. Australian author Kim Wilkins has both been nominated and won the Aurealis Award, the Australian scifi, fantasy and horror book award, multiple times. She won both the fantasy and horror categoríes in 1997 with her first novel The Infernal, and the horror category in 2000 with The Resurrectionists and in 2001 with Angel of Ruin. The Autumn Castle was among the finalists for the horror book award in 2003.
Actually, I was ashtonished to find out that the Autumn Castle had won in horror category! For me it is purely a fantasy book. It is a fairytale for adults, but of course, like most traditional fairytales, the Autumn Castle does have some horror elements. It is, however, in no way a horrific or scary book.
The Autumn Castle is a story about Christine Starlight, a rich young woman living with her boyfriend in an artist colony in Berlin, Germany. Christine is the daughter of two seventies pop stars, who died in a car accident that left Christine herself with constant pain in her back. Christine does not want to use the monay her parents left her just yet and works instead in the English Bookshop for living. She has lived in Berlin as a child and was best friends with a gir,l who was abducted and Christine assumes the girl was murdered. When the backpain one day makes Christine faint, she is miraculously transported into another world, a land of faeries. Soon it is revealed that Christine's childhood friend is not dead, but lives in the lands of faery as Queen Mayfridh. Mayfridh becomes fascinated by the world of humans, while Christine longs to return to faeryland again and again as there she does not feel pain. The tale of Christine and Mayfridh is complicated by a love triangle and a murderous billionaire sculptor, who calls himself the Faery Hunter and wants to build himself a wife by using faery bones as raw material.
The Autumn Castle is a really fantastical story. Ms. Wilkins has created an interesting world with many great characters, my favorites were Hexebart the witch in the well (!!) and Queen Mayfridh's shapeshifting (crow, fox, wolf, bear) counsellor Eisengrimm.
I don't often read fantasy. This book caught my attention in the Academic Bookstore here in Helsinki a couple of years ago, because it was a book written in English but set in Berlin (and the lands of faery, of course :)) and the story sounded just so... well, fantastical! And that it was. The Autumn Castle was a fun story to read.
Find more about Kim Wilkins:Ok, here's one fantastical :) picture I took in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is a dragon decorating the Dragon Bridge (Zmaijski most in Slovene). Dragon is the symbol of Ljubljana.
